The Doctrine and Covenants

Section 130

Items of instruction given by Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Ramus, Illinois, April 2, 1843.

1–3, The Father and the Son may appear personally to men; 4–7, Angels reside in a celestial sphere; 8–9, The celestial earth will be a great Urim and Thummim; 10–11, A white stone is given to all who enter the celestial world; 12–17, The time of the Second Coming is withheld from the Prophet; 18–19, Intelligence gained in this life rises with us in the Resurrection; 20–21, All blessings come by obedience to law; 22–23, The Father and the Son have bodies of flesh and bones.

1 When the Savior shall aappear we shall see him as he is. We shall see that he is a bman like ourselves.

2 And that same asociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with beternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.

3 John 14:23—The aappearing of the Father and the Son, in that verse, is a personal bappearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son cdwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false.

4 In answer to the question—Is not the reckoning of God’s atime, angel’s time, prophet’s time, and man’s time, according to the planet on which they reside?

5 I answer, Yes. But there are no aangels who bminister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it.

6 The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth;

7 But athey reside in the bpresence of God, on a globe clike a dsea of glass and efire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord.

9 This aearth, in its bsanctified and cimmortal state, will be made like unto dcrystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be eChrist’s.

10 Then the white astone mentioned in Revelation 2:17, will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual who receives one, whereby things pertaining to a bhigher order of kingdoms will be made known;

11 And a awhite stone is given to each of those who come into the celestial kingdom, whereon is a new bname written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. The new name is the key word.

12 I prophesy, in the name of the Lord God, that the commencement of the adifficulties which will cause much bloodshed previous to the coming of the Son of Man will be in South Carolina.

13 It may probably arise through the slave question. This a avoice declared to me, while I was praying earnestly on the subject, December 25th, 1832.

14 I was once praying very earnestly to know the time of the acoming of the Son of Man, when I heard a voice repeat the following:

15 Joseph, my son, if thou livest until thou art eighty-five years old, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man; therefore alet this suffice, and trouble me no more on this matter.

16 I was left thus, without being able to decide whether this coming referred to the beginning of the millennium or to some previous appearing, or whether I should die and thus see his face.

17 I believe the coming of the Son of Man will not be any sooner than that time.

19 And if a person gains more aknowledge and intelligence in this life through his bdiligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the cadvantage in the world to come.

20 There is a alaw, irrevocably decreed in bheaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all cblessings are predicated—

21 And when we obtain any ablessing from God, it is by bobedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

22 The aFather has a bbody of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of cSpirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not ddwell in us.

23 A man may receive the aHoly Ghost, and it may descend upon him and not btarry with him.